Sweatshops In The 20th Century

Sweatshops have been around for centuries, beginning around the late 1880’s. Sweatshops are classified by three main components, long work hours, very low pay and unsafe and unhealthy working environments. Sweatshops are usually found in manufacturing industries and the most highlighted production is clothing corporations, who take full advantage of the low production costs of their products. Many may think sweatshops are a thing of the past but they are still affecting many lives across the nations. There are many ways sweatshops affect lives, but a recent article titled “New study finds ‘more sweatshops than Starbucks’ in Chicago” explains that there are many low wage industry jobs that are violating labor laws in the United States alone. The article also reports how employees who are working in such conditions won’t speak up in fear of the retaliation employers will implement. Analyzing Sweatshops through the lens of the Sociological perspectives will help us better understand the illegal conditions of workplaces that still exist today.

Sweatshops are large dim lit factories. Hours are incredibly long, normally from 6 am to 10 pm. The air is dusty and dirty, which makes it very hard to breath. Blisters and sores are not uncommon to be found on the hands of these workers. Most importantly, at the end of the day you will have only earned a whopping 27 cents. This is insane and should be considered a form of slavery. It should not be allowed for people to be treated this way and worked like this. Children are even put to work in these sweatshops. Children who are well under 16 and need to help support their families, so they are put to work at these young ages. Americans cannot possibly think that this is okay.

     Fortunately, companies can afford to pay workers higher wages. If this were not true they would not have been able to become so successful with production in the United States. It is a shame that any company would see themselves as being morally or ethically correct allowing it’s employees to work in a hazardous environment. Companies should want their employees to enjoy the place they work in. This would increase satisfaction in the work place, which would in turn increase production and decrease employee turnover.

ATTENTION GETTER: Somewhere, someone in this room is more than likely wearing a piece of clothing or accessory that has been produced in a human sweatshop. A Sweatshop is an unfit working environment considered to be too dangerous and difficult to work in. Their widespread outbreak happened in the mid 1800’s where clothing could be produced faster and inexpensive without regulations from overseers’.

Sweatshops date back to as far as the 16th century, but were first exposed in Britain in 1889. Around the 1830s-1840s, immigrants started coming to the United States and organized sweatshops in tenement buildings. Despite poor health problems and disease from the harsh conditions, immigrants needed the work and were appreciative. Today sweatshops are often found in slow, developing countries, but many are found around the world. Majority of the workers are commonly women and children, who are usually uneducated. By classifying what a sweatshop is, it is a workplace that violates more than one federal and state labor law and their employees work for long

Thesis statement: Sweatshops, when left to operate without government intervention, are the most efficient way of out poverty.

Almost everyone knows sweatshops are not acceptable places to work or support. Sweatshops, per definition from the International Labor Organization are organizations that violate more than two labor laws (Venkidaslam). There are several arguments against sweatshops. First, is that these organizations exploit their workers. They provide them low wages and some pay below the minimum wage of the home nation. Moreover, these workers are forced to work more than 60 hours per week and are mandated to work overtime. In addition, workers are subjected to unsafe environments and sexual abuse. Finally, sweatshops are known for their child labor, where children below the legal working age are paid extremely small wages. Anyone who is against sweatshops will say, choosing to partner with these organizations are unethical.

"Since 2006, more than 500 Bangladeshi workers have died in factory fires, according to Clean Clothes Campaign, an anti-sweatshop advocacy group in Amsterdam. Experts say many of the fires could have easily been avoided if the factories had taken the right precautions. Many factories are in cramped neighborhoods and have too few fire escapes, and they widely flout safety measures. The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, most of them women.

Sweatshops have always been a problem in the Unites States, especially during the past century. Unfair working conditions and pay prompted the formation of the Garment Worker

            Between 1880-1940 tenement houses became the ideal place to produce garments. The term “Sweatshop” was beginning to come into existence as the sweating system was commonly used during this time.   In the lower east side of New York, tenement houses reached an outrageous number of 35,000, which resulted in a million and a half people working in these establishments (Hapke, 2001).  The working conditions in these houses were horrendous as they were terribly overcrowded to the point where it was uncomfortable and unhealthy to work in the small, poorly ventilated rooms.  The facilities were also

Sweatshops first came into existence in the 18th century in Great Britain. It later came to the United States in the late 19th century, due to a huge increase of immigration in the country. Sweatshops were commonly known in more urban areas. Usually the owners of these factories were people that were rich and were getting richer, while the poor stayed poor. With them staying poor, they could not climb the corporate ladder.(encyclopedia.com) Immigrants were usually employed in sweatshops because coming into this country they would take any job at any wage, it did not matter how low. Due to

The term ‘sweatshops’ depict business establishments that utilise their employees to work under harsh and socially unacceptable conditions with minimal wages for extensive hours, disregarding laws of mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. The concept of ‘sweatshops’ is complex, as it merely depends on in which perspective it is viewed from. Businesses will claim that it is not unethical or that they are not compromising human rights as employees are ‘enthusiastic’ or ‘grateful’ to attain a role in the business and receive a stable income; that they are only improving lives by maintaining a central component within these developing countries (Lehmann, 2010).

I have learned that sweatshops are factories that are established all around the world where workers are payed a limited amount of money for employment. Globalized companies such as Adidas, Nike, Disney, Gap, Wal-Mart, and many more, have been caught in the act of forcing women and young children for cheap labour to expand their companies furthermore. The positive effects of this situation can lead to worldwide businesses to provide more job opportunities to the public and has access to more goods. This is all great but there are still negative effects that have to be covered. These workers only gain $1-$2 per day as their income for working extremely long hours which is very low. Sometimes, these cheap labourers work so hard

A lot of companies use sweatshops as a way to make more money; they pay the workers next to nothing, buy materials for really cheap, and charge a lot

The factory conditions showed in The Last Train Home are pitiful. Sewing machines are squished together; workers can barely move and have no workspace. The floors are barely visible because they’re filed with fabric scraps. The factory workers that have their children living with them in the factories have to take them to their workspace. There the kids run around the factory, take naps in piles of fabric scraps and trip over things. The workers live in the factories; they’re provided with small rooms divided with fabric. The rooms are filthy and overcrowded. The walls and floors of the small dormitories are dirty and grimy. They use buckets as bathrooms, they also have to clean themselves in a bucket. Also, since they live in the factory they inhale fabric dust, which can lead to serious health problems such as Byssinosis a lung disease that occurs to people who work long hours with fabrics and have poor ventilation, which is what happens at these